Forms of conjugal life among the ''young elderly''

In this paper we demonstrate the diversity of conjugal lifestyles of couples in which the partners are more than 50 years old. Four different forms were identified, based on interviews with 60 couples: living in marriage, cohabitation outside marriage, intermittent cohabitation, and alternating cohabitation. An attempt is made to identify some of the factors which determined the choice of a particular lifestyle and to consider possible future developments. It would appear that different conjugal arrangements are linked with the specific problems that these couples must face: the presence of adult children and grandchildren with whom the elderly wish to keep on good terms, ownership of property especially houses to which the elderly are particularly attached, and the existence of past attachments which must neither be forgotten nor disowned.